NSW Preschoolers Have Massive Issues With Tooth Decay

An increasing number of New South Wales’ preschoolers are attending dentist surgeries in order to have tooth decay remedied. 

Cavities and tooth decay are among NSW’s most prevalent health problems as children’s diets take a turn for the worst amidst the obesity epidemic. As a result, more and more children are having to have a tooth, or a number of teeth, removed due to rot.

Figures from NSW Health show that there has been a significant increase in the frequency of hospitalisations for removal and restoration of teeth caused by dental cavities or decay in the last 13 years.

In 2014-15 alone the rate of kids (aged 0-14) undergoing dental surgeries were 402.5 per 100,000 population. When this data is further analysed, it’s clear that rates are highest among kids aged 5 to 14, but dental surgeries are also shockingly common in younger children, with a rate of 343.5 per 100,000 population in children aged 0 to 4 years.

This is a startling increase from 2001-02 when the rate for all children was just 300 per 100,000 population, and it’s making health professionals pay attention.

Dr Sabrina Manickam, president of the Australian Dental Association NSW branch, said it was dental conditions that were behind the largest number of preventable hospitalisation in children, putting the responsibility on parents to make changes to stop the decay issues.

“I have seen it many times when kids need all their teeth removed. The youngest I had was three years old,” Dr Manickam said. “I can’t blame parents for not understanding but once they have the knowledge they need to make decisions that make dental health the priority.”

In NSW, around 40% of children aged 5-6 have some kind of untreated dental decay, or have experienced dental disease in the past.

Dr Manickam works as a dentist in Orange, a rural town in NSW. She said that it was absolutely “devastating” to see these kinds of dental issues in children under the age of five, with poor diet often the culprit.

“It’s the frequency of sugar and it can vary from sugary breakfast cereals that target kids to beverages like chocolate milk and soft drinks and coke,” she said.

“I’ve seen cordial in the kid’s bottle, fruit juice in the bottle and I have seen coke in the bottle “” that can never be justified.”

She noted that mums were even being told to wipe their baby’s teeth after they drank formula or breastmilk, in order to provide an extra layer of protection from the rotting power of sugars.

“We don’t want to see these rates continue to increase. It’s all completely preventable.”

Have your children struggled with tooth rot?